The Body Mass Index (BMI) has a tendency to increase, either with human beings or with animals. When the BMI is too high it may cause problems to the subject. Among these problems may be cited health problem, in particular joint problem, diabetes, etc, social problems, such as discrimination, and/or displacement problems. This BMI may be reduced with a diet having a low glycemic index.
The glycemic index, glycemic index, or GI is a measure of the effects of carbohydrates on blood sugar levels. Carbohydrates that break down quickly during digestion and release glucose rapidly into the bloodstream have a high GI; carbohydrates that break down more slowly, releasing glucose more gradually into the bloodstream, have a low GI. The glycemic index is also useful for providing a direct measure of the insulin response to a food. Additionally, investigations indicate that consumption of low-GI carbohydrates may delay the return of hunger and reduce subsequent energy intake relative to consumption of higher-GI carbohydrates. Thus, lowering the glycemic index of food may improve satiety regulation and prevent energy drop associated with blood sugar variation due to food intake.
Regulation of blood sugar variations due to carbohydrate intake may also be useful for purposes distinct from health issues. For example, such regulation could be useful in weight management strategies, to delay the return of hunger. Blood sugar variations also affect athletes and their performance, as carbohydrates usually form a major part of their diet. Athletes may for example benefit from a low GI pre-event meal to avoid reactive hypoglycemia or blood sugar drop. When blood sugar levels spike because of high-glycemic carbohydrates consumption, the release of insulin is over-stimulated. This causes a rapid blood sugar drop. When involved in an aggressive workout or competition, blood sugar might then drop into the hypoglycemic levels.
Particularly in prevision of unusual endurance sessions, where practical difficulties prevent the athlete from consuming carbohydrate supplements during the session, a pre-event meal comprising low glycemic index food permits the slower absorption and release of glucose theoretically sustaining blood glucose and thus enhancing performance.
The occurrence of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases have been strongly correlated with the presence of a combination of medical disorders called metabolic syndrome or metabolic syndrome X, cardiometabolic syndrome, syndrome X, insulin resistance syndrome, Reaven's syndrome. The metabolic syndrome can be defined according to the WHO criteria by the presence of:
one of:                Diabetes mellitus,        Impaired glucose tolerance,        Impaired fasting glucose or        Insulin resistance;        
AND two of the following:                Blood pressure: ≥140/90 mmHg        Dyslipidemia: triglycerides (TG): ≥1.695 mmol/L and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) ≤0.9 mmol/L (male), ≤1.0 mmol/L (female)        Central obesity: waist/hip ratio >0.90 (male); >0.85 (female), or body mass index >30 kg/m2        Microalbuminuria: urinary albumin excretion ratio ≥20 μg/min or albumin:creatinine ratio ≥30 mg/g        
The International Diabetes Federation also proposed a consensus worldwide definition of the metabolic syndrome:                Central obesity (defined as waist circumference # with ethnicity specific values)        
AND any two of the following:                Raised triglycerides: >150 mg/dL (1.7 mmol/L), or specific treatment for this lipid abnormality.        Reduced HDL cholesterol: <40 mg/dL (1.03 mmol/L) in males, <50 mg/dL (1.29 mmol/L) in females, or specific treatment for this lipid abnormality        Raised blood pressure: systolic BP >130 or diastolic BP >85 mm Hg, or treatment of previously diagnosed hypertension.        Raised fasting plasma glucose: (FPG)>100 mg/dL (5.6 mmol/L), or previously diagnosed type 2 diabetes. If FPG >5.6 mmol/L or 100 mg/dL, OGTT Glucose tolerance test is strongly recommended but is not necessary to define presence of the Syndrome.        
# If BMI is >30 kg/m2, central obesity can be assumed and waist circumference does not need to be measured
Central adiposity is a key feature of the syndrome, reflecting the fact that the syndrome's prevalence is driven by the strong relationship between waist circumference and increasing adiposity. However, despite the importance of obesity, patients that are of normal weight may also be insulin-resistant and have the syndrome. Besides, the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome is strongly correlated to metabolic issues, particularly relating to sugar metabolism issues, and as such to blood glucose variations.
According to many surveys a huge number of people are strongly suspected to be diabetic patient or are undeniable to be diabetic patient. This may amount to 10 to 15% among countries.
The reasons for the increase in the number of diabetic patients may be divided into genetic factors and “living habits” such as obesity, hyperphagia, lack of exercise, and irregular lifestyle. The number of diabetic patients caused by the latter reasons tends to increase. The mechanism of the onset may be that in the case of hyposecretion of insulin associated with postprandial hyperglycemia, or when insulin is secreted but shows resistance and does not work as a hormone, disordered saccharometabolism takes place, which results in diabetes.
Therefore, diet regimen which limits the carbohydrates from meal or pharmacotherapy such as a sugar absorption inhibitor is used for metabolizing sugar with limited insulin.
Some studies showed that normalization of blood glucose over a period of 24 hours may be essential for the onset and development of diabetic angiopathy. Thus, the concept of a glycemic index of foods has been introduced by Jenkins et al. in 1982 (see, for example, Jenkins D J, Ghafari H, Wolever T M, Taylor R H, Jenkins A L, Barker H M, Fielden H, Bowling A C: Relationship between rate of digestion of foods and post-prandial glycaemia, Diabetologia, Vol. 22, 450-455 (1982)).
A glycemic index of a food refers to an index showing the magnitude of the peak of blood glucose level which elevates when the food is ingested. Generally, the glycemic index is obtained by indexation of change of blood glucose level after ingesting various foods as compared with the blood glucose level after ingesting glucose, when the index of any of glucose, polished rice and bread is defined as 100.
It may be considered that when the glycemic index of a food to be ingested is controlled, thereby reducing the load on pancreas, the onset of diabetes can be prevented.
Although some low glycemic index food and/or agent are known in the art, they may need the processing of the foods therefore leading to a huge increase of the cost. They may also have a problem that the forms of the foods are limited, that the agent limiting the glycemic index is highly viscous, which may render difficult the addition of the agent to an ordinary food or to process this agent.
Agents limiting or decreasing the glycemic index may thus be expensive, insufficiently efficient, not versatile enough, not natural, having an appearance or a flavour which is undesirable for the subject, and/or having undesirable effects, for example such as gastric troubles, more particularly flatulence.
The invention thus aims to solve all or part of the above cited problems.